Posts by AggieNostic

39

What do you feel God wants you to do at this moment in time?

by EndofMysteries in

open question, please list scriptures that give you that direction or what you base your answer upon.

i know there are so many different viewpoints on this forum, it will be interesting for all to see them and what scriptures or reasoning they are based on.. some examples are,.

do you feel only one needs to have love, faith in jesus, and those basics and that is what you must proclaim.. do you feel true knowledge must be taught to all, and as much as is known.

AggieNostic

what do I feel?

Number one, if there is a god - he certainly has no desire to be worshipped in just one way or he would have made that fact very plain to all of mankind. This supports my belief that the religions of mankind are just that - of man.

Number two, if there is a god - he gave us life and that's it and I'm happy for that. He obviously has had no desire to interfere or assist beyond creating life. So I feel our worship is expressed by how we value life, treasure it and make the most of it. This actually contributes to my thinking that there is no god at all. This does not bother me. It actually is quite liberating.

Number three, this moment in time has passed - so how I feel has passed. That's the beauty of being alive and thinking for yourself - you can change your mind and how you feel about anything. Tomorrow I may want to become a born again christian or next week become a hindu. It's my choice.

12

Has there every been a JWD census?

by feenx in

jw
friends

i'm curious if there's ever been a poll or some kind of jwd census.

how many apostates, active jw's, faded, df'd, da'd are there on the forum?

how about how many who were once jw's but now have moved on to another religion versus those who now have no affiliation?

AggieNostic

Very interesting topic - I love anything related to statistics!

For the reasons stated above, it would be difficult to do.

Maybe someday we will be able to provide this kind of info without fear and also in an simple format...

By the way, thank you Lady Lee for all of your efforts on our behalf.

19

Children JW Rejection Statistics

by AggieNostic in

jw
friends

i am wondering if my family is similar to yours... i have 2 sisters and 1 brother.

my older sister and i were 5 and 7 years old when my parents joined.

my other sister and brother were "born in".

AggieNostic

I am wondering if my family is similar to yours... I have 2 sisters and 1 brother. My older sister and I were 5 and 7 years old when my parents joined. My other sister and brother were "born in". But pretty much you can say we were all raised in the "truth"...

My 2 sisters are both DF'd. I am in Fadeland - neither DF nor DA, but viewed by the hundreds in this circuit as such... So only my brother is still in.

So, we have a 75% rejection rate - also note our ages are 32 - 45.

How does this compare with your sibling rejection rate? Could this be a trend as the JW generation that were born in the 60s/70s see their children start to become teenagers/young adults and realize this religion does not make sense?

34

Greetings

by AggieNostic in

jw
friends

first new topic for me.. i have observed this site for about 4 years.

haven't been to a meeting since oct 2005. definitely feel jws are a high control group that mirrors many of the definitions of a cult.. i was raised as a witness since age 5, left at age 38, now 43. happily married to a wonderful woman for 24 years, except for 1 year of separation when i was failing miserable in a search for my true self - hard to do when you were completely sucked into this religion.

yes, i was a true believer pretty much up into my late 30s.

AggieNostic

Ha! I just now got the Abbey Normal comment... too funny!!!!! How did I miss that????????

To all who commented, and the hundreds of others who have read this post.... thanks for the kind words and your thoughts. I am sure my story mirrors so many - there is a large number of us that grew up as JWs in the 70s and 80s that feel very similar.

I'm looking forward to contributing to this forum in some small way... I certainly have been helped by all of your threads over the years - more than words can express. It would be selfish of me not to contribute and give back even if only in a small way.

34

Written Reviews...what did you really do during them?

by xeracia in

jw
friends

remember these silly tests they make you take?

i don't remember how often they were, but thinking back on them, boy does it seem silly!

sitting there for half an hour trying to remember stupid stuff as if you are in school.

AggieNostic

what I remember about the reviews in past times was that the platform was empty, there was a complete silence in the hall - except for the rustling pages of the bibles... there was a sense of calm almost...

I enjoyed the reviews - always loved the scripture match the question/statement section.

I also tried to always be the first one done and would make a triumphant closure of my bible and folding up of the review paper, hands behind head - maybe walk back for drink of lukewarm water - it was never plugged in to save electricity $$$ - at the fountain (of course I would always sit towards the front... and as I walked down the aisle - have a faint smile looking down at the busy test takers with a slight disdain... as if they were not as smart as I... hahahahahahha!!!!!)

45

As a JW Did you Feel " Guilted " to go to Meetings /Service if Injured /Sick ?

by flipper in

jw
friends

many people in the jehovah's witnesses , older ones, younger ones have been expected to pioneer, go in field service with physical disabilities and are even considered "martyrs" if they push themselves to their physical capacities beyond reasonableness .

thus many witnesses feel sick, exhausted, tired, and essentially fight depression due to high expectations to " burn out " for the wt society.

have any of you experienced this while in the witnesses ?.

AggieNostic

Great thread Mr. Flipper!

This topic underscores how fanatical JWs are. This martyr mentality is a hair's width from lashing backs with barbed whips...

Case in point: my wife's parents' house (next door to our house at that time - fortunately we live 10 miles away...) burned down early on a Thursday morning. Burned completely down. 25 years of history wiped out. With the ashes of their lives smoldering in the background, they were more concerned that they both had parts on that nights School and Service Meeting... and didn't want to cancel! I look back at that with mixed thoughts: at least they had the distraction of the meeting and at the same time they are so brainwashed that material things, memories, photos and the years of effort making a home really mean ZERO to JWs. They are ready to CNTRL ALT DELETE their "old system of things" lives away at the drop of a hat. That disturbs me because it wouldn't be a much of a stretch with that mindset, if commanded by "Mother" to do anything. ANYTHING. Jonestown comes to mind....

221

Why do Ex-JWs start celebrating pagan Christmas?

by DubR in

hiya guys and gals.

im not trying to be self-righteous but i want to understand the thought process of someone who knows the origins of christmas, but starts celebrating it (putting up christmas tree, exchanging wrapped gifts; repeating merry christmas to everyone they see in the month of december)??

it seems very silly to me (imo) after knowing how and why christmas was created (to cater to pagans sun worship and convert to christianity)!!

AggieNostic

This year will be Christmas number 2 for our family and we LOVE it! We don't even consider it religious - for us it is a time for family, friends, sharing and appreciation of those loving bonds. The timing is perfect - it's at the end of the year - we can look back on the past months and re-evaluate our lives and accomplishments and also learn from any issues/problems the we encountered.

Christmas to us has VALUE. The previous life with JWs had nothing like it and in fact JW families would be better off if they did.

It's sad that we are just now starting this Christmas tradition - we have no fond memories - but at least we are starting now and I can't wait for Christmas with my grand children and hopefully my great grandchildren!!!

5

Greetings

by AggieNostic in

jw
friends

first new topic for me.. i have observed this site for about 4 years.

haven't been to a meeting since oct 2005. definitely feel jws are a high control group that mirrors many of the definitions of a cult.. i was raised as a witness since age 5, left at age 38, now 43. happily married to a wonderful woman for 24 years, except for 1 year of separation when i was failing miserable in a search for my true self - hard to do when you were completely sucked into this religion.

yes, i was a true believer pretty much up into my late 30s.

AggieNostic

Thanks Cadellin! I dont have much time today to expand my story regarding the "blinders" - I will tell you that doubts and questions started years prior to my "exit"... alot had to do with my children and them becoming older and frankly, they wanted to participate in sports...

Thank you for the thoughts regarding college - I would like to, but my job takes me all over North America each week and the time isn't there. The company I work for assumes that I have a degree anyway LOL! Maybe when I retire I will attend Uni and major in something cool and not need it for employment - just for my enjoyment!

Talk to everyone soon!

Aggie

36

A Sister and a Brother alone

by Lilycurly in

i've been looking in the watchtower library all morning and can't find anything.. i know that jws have this rule (is it unwritten??

) where a brother and a sister should not be left alone in a car, a house, or any private place.

but my jw father says it's not so, and he spent a part of yesterday installing a computer program at a jw couple's house while the man was at work and the wife was at home.

AggieNostic

...and yet the COs wife was always able to jet off to a return visit or a bible study with a brother - this happened several times that I observed. I mentioned it to the brothers and they wouldn't even touch that conversation... I guess the COs wife was able to control herself where the lower class sisters could not...

34

Greetings

by AggieNostic in

jw
friends

first new topic for me.. i have observed this site for about 4 years.

haven't been to a meeting since oct 2005. definitely feel jws are a high control group that mirrors many of the definitions of a cult.. i was raised as a witness since age 5, left at age 38, now 43. happily married to a wonderful woman for 24 years, except for 1 year of separation when i was failing miserable in a search for my true self - hard to do when you were completely sucked into this religion.

yes, i was a true believer pretty much up into my late 30s.

AggieNostic

thanks everyone for your kind comments...

Mouthy! I have read your posts for a long time - you are the best! Hugs back at ya!

No, I'm not from Texas - Aggie is just my play on Agnostic - which I am... bordering Atheist - what a long way from how I was raised.

Our family celebrated Christmas last year for the first time "officially" - it was so much fun! The only downer is that we still hide it from our parents and other family members that are still JWs. In fact, last year my son was driving back to college - he passed my wife's parents heading our way - he called to warn us and I frantically rushed around putting the tree and decorations away so they would not see... too funny.

I asked my daughter if she wanted to be "public" about christmas this year and she said fine - but my wife and I are still hesitant as none of us are DF'd and we still have limited contact with our parents - if word got out about christmas we would be DF'd... we still value what little relationship we have with them...

I have so many stories to tell and to add to this one... stay tuned for more posts!

Aggie